There is a story told in the Talmud as if it were simple:

Four entered Pardes.
Ben Azzai gazed and died.
Ben Zoma gazed and lost his reason.
Acher gazed and cut the shoots.
Rabbi Akiva entered in peace and left in peace.

But nothing in this story is simple.
It is the story of Creation itself.
It is the story of the three fallen lights of Tohu and the one light that rose.

It is the story of the human soul’s confrontation with the primordial radiance that once illuminated the universe before any vessel could hold it.

It is the story of what happens when human beings step into the higher Eden where the first light — the one hidden away for the righteous — still glimmers behind the curtains of the worlds.

And it is the story of why only Rabbi Akiva survived.

I. Ben Azzai — The Light That Ascended Instantly

Ben Azzai is the archetype of the ascending light — the light of Tohu that rushed upward the instant the vessels shattered.

This is the light that refused limitation, form, boundary, embodiment.
The Ari describes it:

“אוֹר שֶׁאֵינוֹ מִתְאַבֵּק בְּכֵלִים.”
“A light that will not settle in vessels.”
(Eitz Chaim, Shaar HaNekudim)

Ben Azzai was like that.
Pure.
Uncompromised.
Too fine for the world.

He looked, and the looking became flight.
His soul recognized its home, and in a single breath he dissolved into the radiance.

“יָקָר בְּעֵינֵי ה’ הַמָּוֶת לַחֲסִידָיו.”
“Precious in the sight of the Holy One is the death of His beloved.”
(Psalms........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)